|
We do not now speak of those great elect souls whom
God by a most special favour so maintains and
confirms in his love, that they run no hazard of
losing it.
We speak for the rest of mortals, to whom the Holy
Ghost addresses these warnings: He that thinketh
himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.(1)
Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy
crown.(2) Labour the more that by good works you may
make sure your calling and election.(3) Whence he
makes them make this prayer: Cast me not away from
thy face; and take not thy holy spirit from me.(4)
And lead us not into temptation: that they may work
out their salvation with a holy trembling, and a
sacred fear,(5) knowing that they are not more
constant and strong to preserve God's love than were
the first angel with his followers and Judas, who
receiving it, lost it, and losing it lost themselves
for ever; nor than Solomon, who, having once left it,
holds the whole world in doubt of his damnation; nor
than Adam and Eve, David S. Peter, who being children
of salvation, fell yet for a space from the love
without which there is no salvation.
Alas! Theotimus, who shall then have assurance of
preserving sacred love in the navigation of this
mortal life, since, as well on earth as in heaven, so
many persons of incomparable dignity have suffered
such cruel shipwrecks?
But, O eternal God! how is it possible, will one say,
that a soul that has the love of God can ever lose
it; for where love is it resists sin, and how comes
it to pass then that sin gets entry there, since love
is strong as death, hard in fight as hell?(6) How
can the forces of death or hell, that is, of sins,
vanquish love, which at least equals them in
strength, and surpasses them in helps and in right?
And how can it be that a reasonable soul which has
once relished so great a sweetness as is that of
heavenly love, can ever willingly swallow the bitter
waters of offence? Children, though children, being
fed with milk, abhor the bitterness of wormwood and
of aloes, and cry themselves into convulsions when
they are made to take them. Ah! then, O true God!
Theotimus, how can the soul, once joined to the
goodness of the Creator, forsake him to follow the
vanity of the creature?
My dear Theotimus, the heavens themselves are
astonished, their gates become desolate with fear,(7)
and the angels of peace are lost in amazement at this
prodigious misery of man's heart, abandoning a good
so worthy of love, to join itself to things so
unworthy. But have you never, seen that little marvel
which every one knows, though every one does not know
the reason of it? When a very full barrel is
broached, the wine will not run unless it have air
given from above, which yet happens not to barrels in
which there is already a void, for they are no sooner
open but the wine runs.
Truly in this mortal life though our souls abound
with heavenly love yet they are never so fill of it
but that by temptation this love may depart: in
heaven, however, when the sweetness of God's beauty
shall occupy all our understanding, and the delights
of his goodness shall wholly satiate our wills, so
that there shall be nothing which the fulness of his
love shall not replenish, no object, though it
penetrate even to our hearts, can ever draw or make
run out one sole drop of the precious liquor of our
heavenly love. And to expect to give air above, that
is, to deceive or surprise the understanding, shall
no more be possible; for it shall be immovable in the
apprehension of the sovereign truth.
So wine well purified and separated from the lees is
easily kept from turning and getting thick; that
which is on its lees is in continual danger; and we,
so long as we are in this world, have our souls upon
the lees or tartar of a thousand moods and miseries,
and consequently easy to change and spoil in their
love. But once in heaven, where, as in the great
feast described by Isaias, we shall have wine
purified from all lees, we shall be no longer subject
to change, but be inseparably united by love to our
sovereign good. Here in the twilight of dawning we
are afraid that in lieu of the spouse we may meet
some other object, which may engage and deceive us,
but when we shall find Him above, where He feeds and
reposes in the mid-day, there will be no chance of
being deceived, for His light will be too clear, and
His sweetness will bind us so closely to His
goodness, that we shall no longer have the power to
will to unfasten ourselves.
We are like the coral, which in the sea, the place
of its origin, is a pale-green, weak, drooping and
pliable tree, but being drawn from the bottom of the
sea, as from its mother's womb, it becomes almost a
stone, firm and unbending, while it changes its
pale-green into a lively red. For so we being as yet
amidst the sea of this world the place of our birth,
are subject to extreme vicissitudes, liable to be
bent on every side; to the right, which is heavenly
love, by inspiration, to the left, which is earthly
love, by temptation. But if, being once drawn out of
this mortality, we have changed the pale-green of our
trembling hopes into the bright red of assured
fruition, we shall never more be movable, but make a
settled abode for ever in eternal love.
It is impossible to see the Divinity and not love
it, but here below where we do not see it, but only
have a glimpse of it through the clouds of faith, as
in a mirror, our knowledge is not yet so perfect as
not to leave an opening for the surprises of other
objects and apparent goods, which through the
obscurities which are mixed with the certainty and
verity of faith, steal in unperceived, like little
fox cubs, and demolish our flourishing vineyard.
To conclude, Theotimus, when we have charity our
free-will is clothed with her wedding garment, which,
as she can still keep it on if she please by
well-doing, so she can put off if she please by
offending.
|